This invention relates to a device and combination of devices for facilitating the spreading of materials and more particularly to a conveyor which is configurable between a transport configuration and a material transfer configuration wherein the conveyor is configured to receive materials from a transport vehicle and transfer those materials into a material receiver of a spreader device and a combination of the conveyor and spreader device.
Often landscaping companies and construction companies utilize a spreader or slinger truck to spread compost, grass seeds and other bulk materials over a large area. One such application is the utilization of compost or grass seeds along the side of a public thoroughfare following road construction. Such spreaders or slingers allow large quantities of material to be spread rapidly. Unfortunately spreaders and slingers typically have limited capacity for storing the material to be spread. In the road construction example, other trucks or trailers are often used to deliver the bulk material to be spread to the site at which it will be spread while the spreader or slinger remains at the current landscaping site.
Typically the delivery vehicle is not equipped to effectively transfer the material into the hopper or storage section of the spreader or slinger. For example, spreader/slingers such as the CAS ST™, CAS MGT™ and CAS AT6™ available from Conveyor Application Systems, LLC of Eugene Oreg., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rexius Corporation, include an open top bed acting as a hopper for holding materials to be spread by a spreader conveyor or hose. Similar spreaders or slingers are available from other manufactures, such as, for example, Express Blower, Inc. of Eugene, Oreg.
The open top of such spreaders/slingers is too high off of the ground for standard dump trucks of other standard delivery vehicles to transfer their load of material directly into the hopper section of the spreader or slinger. One system for transferring material from a delivery vehicle to the general purpose CAS ST™ and CAS MG™ slinger trucks or to other slingers and spreaders is a reload conveyor. One known reload conveyor is also manufactured by Conveyor Application Systems and is configured to reload the CAS slinger trucks and similar slingers and spreaders having a top opening bed or hopper. The CAS MG™, which is specifically designed for roadside applications, appears to have its own reload conveyor system attached thereto.
Known existing reload conveyors are typically high capacity conveyors designed to handle a wide range of materials that can be spread by the slinger trucks including, but not limited to compost, mulch, seeds, construction aggregates, asphalt, concrete, sand, top soil, cinder rock and crushed or rounded rock or stone. Such reload conveyors include a rigid straight conveyor bed or frame and a hopper for receipt of the material to be loaded into the slinger or spreader. A conveyor belt is guided by the conveyor bed or frame and transports material from the hopper to a discharge end of the reload conveyor. The rigid conveyor frame may be attached to a trailer providing wheels for transporting the reload conveyor to work sites. The rigid conveyor frame may be mounted in a manner to allow the rigid frame to be rotated about a pivot point adjacent the hopper so that the discharge end of the conveyor may be elevated for transferring material from the hopper into the open bead of the spreader and lowered for transportation of the reload conveyor. When in transport configuration, such reload conveyors are very long.
Often, in order to receive materials from a dump or conveyor bed truck, the hopper of a reload conveyor is sized to exceed the width of the bed of the truck so that during material transfer most of the material leaving the bed of the truck is discharged into the hopper when the truck is properly positioned. Often, trucks used to transport materials are manufactured with beds that approach the width limitation for travel on public thoroughfares without a wide load permit, signage or escort and/or chase vehicles. Thus, a hopper configured to be wider than the bed of such trucks may exceed the limitation for travel on public thoroughfares without a wide load permit, signage or escort and/or chase vehicles.
According to one aspect of the disclosure a reload conveyor with an articulating conveyor frame includes a conveyor frame and a material receiving mechanism. The conveyor frame is configured to articulate to assume a transport configuration and a material transfer configuration wherein the overall length of the reload conveyor in the transport configuration is substantially shorter than in the transfer configuration. The material receiving mechanism is also configured and arranged to assume a transfer configuration and a transport configuration wherein the width of the material receiving mechanism is substantially less in the transport configuration than in the transfer configuration:
According to another aspect of the disclosure a reload conveyor with an articulating conveyor frame comprises a conveyor frame and a material receiving mechanism. The conveyor frame is configured to articulate to assume a transport configuration and a material transfer configuration.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.